NETFLIX OFFERS STARZ $300 MILLION FOR RENEWAL, STARZ WALKS AWAY FROM TALKS

Netflix offered Starz more than $300 million per year to renew their agreement, but the pay cable channel was insistent on so-called tiered pricing, according to people close to the negotiations but not authorized to speak on the record. Tiered pricing would require Netflix subscribers who want movies and television shows from Starz and other premium providers to pay more than the standard $8 per month. That demand was apparently a key sticking point in talks that fell apart Thursday, meaning the two companies' deal, which began in 2008, will expire at the end of February. Starz wanted Netflix to charge a premium price for its content in order to put the popular online video service more in line with cable and satellite providers. Protecting relationships with multiplatform video programming distributors (MVPDs) like DirecTV and Time Warner Cable is critical to Starz. The MVPDs are wary of Netflix because they fear customers will "cut the cord" if enough fresh content is available online at a lower price.

WINKLEVOSS TWINS GIVE UP APPEAL OF FACEBOOK RULING

Olympic rowing twins Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss have decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court a ruling upholding their $65 million settlement with Facebook Inc and its founder Mark Zuckerberg, signaling the possible end of the long-running dispute.

The 2008 accord was intended to resolve a feud over whether Zuckerberg stole the idea for what became the world's most popular social networking website from the Winklevosses, who like him had attended Harvard University. Their battle was dramatized in the 2010 film "The Social Network."

After agreeing to the cash-and-stock accord, the Winklevosses sought to undo it, saying it was fraudulent because Facebook hid information from them, and that they deserved more money.

The 6-foot 5-inch (1.96-meter) twins, who competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had been planning to appeal an April 11 ruling by a federal appeals court in San Francisco upholding the settlement, which that court called "quite favorable."

But in a filing on Wednesday with that court, the Winklevosses said that after "careful consideration," they decided not to seek Supreme Court review. The filing did not give a reason for the decision.

RUMOR: SPRINT LIGHTSQUARED SIGN 15-YEAR LTE AGREEMENT

Apparently Sprint's none too concerned about recent complaints from the likes of John Deere and the federal government about LightSquared's potential interference with GPS signals. A letter obtained by Bloomberg reveals that Sprint has signed a 15-year deal with Falcone and co., agreeing to share network expansion costs in return for a slice of the sweet LTE service. According to the document, "LightSquared and Sprint will jointly develop, deploy and operate LightSquared's 4G LTE network." The report comes on the heels of rumors of a $20 billion agreement between the two companies. Unfortunately for both parties, no amount of billion dollar bills will shake impending scrutiny from the FCC.

MOTOROLA AND HUAWEI DROP LAWSUITS, ENTER INTO SHARING AGREEMENT

After months of fighting on the playground, Motorola and Huawei have finally come to an agreement to settle their differences once and for all. Both parties have now dropped their pending lawsuits, with Motorola originally accusing Huawei of stealing trade secrets from its former employees, and later on Huawei getting all worried about Motorola leaking confidential information over their partnership to the rivaling Nokia Siemens Networks. The new agreement will now allow Motorola "transfer its commercial agreements with Huawei to NSN for a fee," which would then permit NSN use this info to service Motorola's networks that utilise Huawei's equipment.